Sliding scale adaptive self-synchronized dynamic address translation

ABSTRACT

A bastion host is provided for a local area network (LAN). The bastion host processes packets to be transferred from the LAN to a wide area network (WAN). The bastion host intercepts packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN, extracts bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation, masks bits from the one or more blocks that vary rapidly packet to packet, applies a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking; and reinserts bits from the translated block back into the packet header.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The instant patent application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/928,133, pending, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ADAPTIVE SELF-SYNCHRONIZED DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION AS AN INTRUSION DETECTION SENSOR,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/228,900, filed Aug. 28, 2000; and to co-pending, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/927,671, pending, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ADAPTIVE SELF-SYNCHRONIZED DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/228,832, filed Aug. 28, 2000, each filed on even date herewith, each having assignee in common with that of the instant patent application, and each being incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the field of network communication systems and, more particularly to security systems for use with network communication systems.

2. Related Art

A set of inter-connected computer networks that spans a relatively large geographical area is called a wide area network (WAN). Typically, a WAN consists of two or more local-area networks (LANs). Computers connected to a WAN are often connected through public networks, such as the telephone system. They can also be connected through leased lines or satellites. The largest WAN in existence is the Internet.

The Internet is a public, world-wide WAN defined by the IP (Internet Protocol) suite of protocols, which has in recent years gone from being a tool used primarily in scientific and military fields to become an important part of the missions of a wide variety of organizations. Organizations often run one or more LANs and connect their LANs to the Internet to share information with the cyber world in general, and with other organization-run LANS that may be remotely located. However, along with providing new levels of connectivity and sources of information, connection to the Internet or to a private WAN has brought security risks in the form of adversaries seeking to disrupt or infiltrate the organization's mission by interfering with or monitoring the organizations' networks.

Several security devices that exist today are designed to keep external adversaries from obtaining access to a LAN. Firewalls, for example, protect the LAN against unauthorized access by allowing only communications data (commonly called datagrams or “packets”) from known machines to pass. This is accomplished by monitoring network IP addresses on these packets, which correspond uniquely to a particular machine, and TCP service ports, which usually map into a specific type of software application such as mail, ftp, http and the like. The firewall then determines whether to allow or disallow entry of the packet into the LAN as it deems appropriate.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) devices protect against unauthorized interception of transmitted data by encrypting the entire packet. For example, a VPN (in tunnel mode) wraps outgoing datagrams with its own header and sends the encrypted packet to a destination VPN. A limitation of VPNs, however, is that adversaries can determine where the VPN devices are located in the network, since each VPN has a specific IP address. Accordingly, a VPN does not hide its location in the network, and is therefore vulnerable to an attack once its location is known. Similarly, other security technology, such as configured routers, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and host-based Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) fail to obscure the location of nodes inside a network.

Although prior art techniques are generally good for their intended purposes, they do not address the problem of detecting intrusion attempts against the network. To alert against possible intrusion attempts, network administrators have turned to intrusion detection sensing (IDS) technology. IDS technology is used to ascertain the level of adversary activity on the LAN and to monitor the effectiveness of other security devices, such as those discussed above. IDS products work by looking for patterns of known attack, including network probes, specific sequences of packets representing attacks (called known intrusion patterns, or KIPs), and the like. An administrator uses IDS technology primarily to determine the occurrence of any adversarial activity, information useful in evaluating the effectiveness of current security technology and justifying additional commitment to network security.

In addition to protecting transmitted data, an organization may wish to prevent unauthorized parties from knowing the topology of their LANs. Existing security techniques do not completely secure a network from adversaries who employ traffic mapping analysis. Data packets exchanged across networks carry not only critical application data, but also contain information that can be used to identify machines involved in the transactions.

Today's sophisticated adversaries employ network-level “sniffers” to passively monitor freely transmitted network traffic and thereby gather critical network topology information, including the identities of machines sending and receiving data and the intermediate security devices that forward the data. The sophisticated adversary can use this identity information to map internal network topologies and identify critical elements such as: roles of the servers, clients and security devices on the network, classes of data associated with specific servers, and relative mission importance of specific machines based on network traffic load. The adversary can then use this network map information to plan a well-structured, network-based attack.

Recently, a network security technique has been developed that addresses this problem by concealing the identities of machines and topology in the LAN. The technology was developed by the assignee of the present application, and is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/594,100, pending, entitled Method and Apparatus for Dynamic Mapping and hereby incorporated by reference. The Dynamic Mapping technique hides machine identities on IP data packets by translating source and destination addresses just prior to transmitting them over the Internet. When packets arrive at an authorized destination, a receiving device programmed with the Dynamic Mapping technique restores the source and destination addresses (according to a negotiated scheme) and forwards the packets to the appropriate host on its LAN.

While the Dynamic Mapping technique represents a significant advancement in the field of network security, a fundamental limitation of the technique is that it is a time-based, fixed-key system, i.e., all packets matching a given destination address are consistently translated, or mapped, to a fixed “other” destination address for a given interval of time. When that time interval expires, the mapping is changed to something else. Thus, the time-based nature of the technique requires strict synchronization between endpoints, and can make operations difficult.

Besides the operational difficulties with a time-based system, the length of each translation time interval is sufficient for an adversary to extrapolate information from observed communications, even though observed addresses are false. Furthermore, adversaries are able to enact active attacks by sending forged packets to the false addresses knowing that they will reach their true destination. A further limitation is that the Dynamic Mapping technique was designed as a fixed-association security system, requiring fixed keys to be established between the client and server. This effectively binds clients to a specific server, limiting the flexibility of the system and preventing autonomous negotiations with other servers.

There exists, therefore, a great need for a method of concealing the identities of LAN machines and topology that takes an entirely fresh approach, departs from the time-dependant systems of the past, and provides a security technique that is more robust and more difficult to defeat. The technique should ideally allow for construction of network access devices, such as routers, that offer the benefits of Dynamic Mapping to protect an enclave of computers. In addition, these devices should be flexible enough to be self-discovering, able to negotiate mapping parameters with one another on a need-based, authorized basis.

While as a general matter the need exists to confuse adversaries and dissuade them from attempting to uncover network topology, there is also a need for a technique that will entice a potential adversary into making such an attempt. This may be advantageous since it would enable the network to identify which adversaries are interested in learning about the network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of translating packets in a manner that would entice a would-be adversary to try to ping the network to learn its topology, while hiding the true host source and destination addresses.

In accordance with one preferred embodiment, translation of packet information is performed such that the apparent host source address in the header of each packet emanating from a local area network, or enclave, is an arbitrary address, and one that changes every predetermined number of packets. Such translation makes it appear to an outside observer that the packets are originating from various ones of hosts, the addresses for which do not relate to actual hosts in the source enclave.

Another embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus for processing packets to be transferred from a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN). The apparatus includes means for intercepting packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN. This apparatus further includes means for extracting bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation, masking means for masking bits from the one or more blocks that vary rapidly packet to packet, means for applying a predetermined encryption algorithm to the one or more blocks after masking by the masking means, and means for reinserting bits from the translated block back into the packet header.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a method for processing packets to be transferred from a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN). This method includes intercepting packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN. The method further includes extracting bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation, masking bits from the one or more blocks that vary rapidly packet to packet, applying a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking at the masking step, and reinserting bits from the translated block back into the packet header.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention is a bastion host for a local area network (LAN) adapted for processing packets to be transferred from the LAN to a wide area network (WAN). The bastion host is operable to intercept packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN. The bastion host if further operable to extract bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation, mask bits from the one or more blocks that vary rapidly packet to packet, apply a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking, and reinsert bits from the translated block back into the packet header.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a system for securely transmitting, on a wide area network (WAN), packets between at least a first enclave local area network (LAN) and a second enclave LAN. The system includes a source host in the first enclave LAN, the source host sending packets destined for transmission over the WAN to a receiving host on the second enclave LAN. The system further includes a source bastion host associated with the first enclave LAN. The source bastion host is operable to intercept packets originating from the source host and destined for the receiving host, extract bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation, mask bits from the one or more blocks that vary rapidly packet to packet, apply a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking, and reinsert bits from the translated block back into the packet header, and transmit the packet on the WAN. The system further includes a receiving bastion host associated with the second enclave LAN. The receiving bastion host is operable to receive the packets including the translated blocks, apply a decryption algorithm, associated with the predetermined encryption algorithm, to the translated blocks and pass the decrypted packets on to the receiving host. The system further includes the receiving host.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention is a computer-readable medium storing code which, when executed by a processor-controlled apparatus, causes the apparatus to perform a method for processing packets to be transferred from a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN). The method includes intercepting packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN. The method further includes extracting bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation, masking bits from the one or more blocks that vary rapidly packet to packet, applying a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking at the masking step, and reinserting bits from the translated block back into the packet header.

The invention will next be described in connection with certain exemplary embodiments; however, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that various modifications, additions and subtractions can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network implementing Adaptive Self-Synchronized Dynamic Address Translation (ASD) in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing steps for the Adaptive Self-Synchronized Dynamic Address Translation (ASD) technique in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates how extracted TCP/IP fields are packed into an unencrypted byte array in accordance with the subject invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates the translation process in accordance with the subject invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are a flowchart showing steps for the handshake operation between ASD peers in accordance with the subject invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a UDP/IP header in accordance with the subject invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing steps for sending a packet to a non-ASD protected enclave;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing steps for receiving a reply packet from a non-ASD machine;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how a particular packet header field undergoes translation in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the packet translation process in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating the packet detranslation process in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As mentioned above, the Dynamic Mapping technique of concealing the identities of machines and topology in the LAN is time-dependant and requires synchronization between communication partners. In addition, that technique requires a mapping of false addresses to true addresses. Applicants have invented a systematic method of making this technique even more robust. In particular, Applicants have invented a method of translating source and destination addresses and packet identifier information on a per-packet basis that extends the Dynamic Mapping technique by eliminating its time-dependency, synchronization, and mapping requirements. This new concept, which may be referred to for the sake of convenience as Adaptive Self-Synchronized Dynamic Address Translation (ASD), continually remaps machine source and destination addresses and packet identifier information, thereby continually changing the network appearance to adversaries outside an ASD-protected enclave.

A preferred embodiment of the ASD technique of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network implementing the ASD technique of the present invention to protect enclaves 30, 33 of local sending and receiving hosts 31, 34, respectively, connected to the Internet 36. A bastion host computer programmed with the ASD technique, hereinafter referred to as a sending ASD peer 32 or receiving ASD peer 35, protects each enclave. A bastion host is a gateway between an inside network and an outside network. Conventional routers 38, 37 are coupled to the ASD peers 32, 35 and connect the ASD protected enclaves 30, 33 to the Internet 36. A private WAN can also be connected between the ASD protected enclaves.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart describing the steps involved in a preferred embodiment of the ASD method of the present invention. In this embodiment, in step S100, an ASD administrator pre-configures the ASD peers 32, 35 with security information to support a secure exchange of packets. This pre-configuring operation allows enclaves to maintain predetermined security associations with each other by prearranging which enclaves are ASD protected enclaves, which encryption algorithms are being used for each particular ASD enclave, timeout information, and information necessary for generating an encryption key. Preferably, this security information is located in the ASD peers 32, 35, and is in the form of tables called out-of-band (OOB) configuration tables.

The ASD peers 32, 35 and their respective tables are preferably managed by software called OOB management software. The OOB management software allows remote access to secure ports on the ASD peer by systems administrators, to allow them to configure the ASD peers 32, 35, and the OOB configuration tables.

Next, as shown in step S101, to initiate a transmission of information over the network, a sending host 31 sends a packet to a receiving host 34. The sending host 31 sends the packet by looking up the IP address of the receiving host 34 (through a predefined host table or a search service such as Domain Name Service (DNS)), and transmitting the packet. Before the packet can leave the sending enclave 30, it encounters a sending ASD peer 32, which intercepts the packet bound for the receiving host 34 and in step S102 places it into a queue. The queue preferably is located in the sending ASD peer's 32 user-space memory. The packet is stored there until the sending ASD peer 32 and receiving ASD peer 35 have established an ASD connection.

Next at step S103, the handshake operation is performed to establish the connection between the sending ASD peer 32 and the receiving ASD peer 35. This initial communication between peers allows the peers to negotiate a symmetric cryptographic key via a secure key exchange protocol for use in encrypting packet header information.

If it is determined at step S104 that the handshake was successful, then at step S106 portions of the packet header are cryptographically translated using a translation process to be described in more detail below. If the handshake operation is unsuccessful, then in step S109, the packet is dropped. Future connections from the sending device can then be ignored.

The encrypted portions of the packet header are those portions relating to the source and destination hosts 31, 34 and packet sequencing information. In this embodiment, the packets include class-C addresses routable over the Internet. Class-C addresses use 24 bits for the network portion of the address, and 8 bits for the individual machine portion of the address. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that ASD could be tailored for use with other address classes, in which case the number of bits used for the network address will differ. Note, however, that the network portions of the source and destination addresses (e.g., the upper 24 bits of a class-C packet) are not encrypted, thus allowing the packets to be routed on the Internet 36.

Once translated, this encrypted packet is transmitted across the Internet 36 to the destination enclave 33, targeted to the receiving host 34. The receiving ASD peer 35 intercepts the packet once it has reached the destination enclave 33 and verifies by examining the unencrypted (network) portion of the source address that the received packet came from an ASD protected enclave 30. If the sending enclave is recognized as a trusted enclave, the receiving ASD peer 35 restores the packet in accordance with the prearranged protocol. The result of this process is a restored packet identical to the original packet created by the sending host 31.

The packet is then forwarded, typically by enclave TCP/IP routing procedures and hardware, to the receiving host 34. For information going in the other direction the receiving ASD peer 35 will take on the role of a sending ASD peer 32, and can send packets from host 34 within its enclave 33 back to the original sending ASD peer 32 using the same prearranged translation process. Once the initial packet has been received, follow-on packets can be delivered and individually translated until a key timeout occurs (step S108). If it is determined in step S108 that a key timeout has occurred, the old key information is erased from memory and the flow loops back to step S101 to wait for another packet from sending ASD peer 32. Subsequent receipt of a packet from sending ASD peer 32 will activate the handshake operation again to negotiate a new key.

By such frequent, asynchronous remapping, the per-packet cryptographic technique described above offers a degree of address obfuscation that has not heretofore been provided, and continually changes a protected network's appearance to the outside world, adding a critical layer of defense against both passive network mapping attempts and active penetration attacks.

A preferred embodiment of the packet translation process will next be discussed in more detail with reference to Tables 1, 2 and 3 and FIGS. 3 and 4. Table 1 illustrates the fields of a conventional TCP/IP packet.

TABLE 1 IP TCP Ver. 1HL TOS Total Length Source Port Destination Port Identification Flags Fragment Offset Sequence Number Time to Live Protocol Header Checksum Acknowledgement Number Source Network Address Src Host Addr Offset Reserved (Bits) Window Destination Network Address Dest Host Addr Checksum Urgent Pointer Options + Padding Options + Padding

The translation process of the present invention encrypts certain fields from the original TCP/IP header (shown in Table 1 in boldface type) to hide the host's location. The fields to be encrypted are first extracted, by the ASD peer, from the original TCP/IP packet. Those fields are the: Identification, Source Host portion of the Source Address, Destination Host portion of the Destination Address, Source Port, Destination Port, Sequence Number, Acknowledgement Number, and Padding parameters. The extracted fields are then packed into a byte array for further processing.

FIG. 3 illustrates how the extracted TCP/IP fields of a class-C addressable packet 200 are packed into an unencrypted byte array 210. In the preferred embodiment, the addresses are class-C type addresses. Therefore, only the lower 8-bits of the IP source and destination addresses are packed into the unencrypted byte array 210, thus preserving the network address (i.e., upper 24 bits) of the original packet. This is done to assure delivery to the destination network, and hence the receiving ASD peer 35. Next, the unencrypted byte array 210 is encrypted.

FIG. 4 illustrates the encryption process. The unencrypted byte array 210 is encrypted with the encryption key 300, agreed upon during the handshake operation, to form an encrypted byte array 310. There are various types of known block cipher algorithms available for doing symmetric encryption such as for example RC5™, created by RSA Securities Incorporated, Data Encryption Standard (DES), Blowfish, Twofish, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), etc. In order to encrypt, these block cipher algorithms require a specific N-bit blocksize of data, where N is the number of bits as prescribed by the algorithm (e.g., 64 for DES), per encryption operation. Accordingly, if the data size is less than N-bits, padding can be added to the unencrypted byte array 210 to make the total length equal to N-bits.

Next, the encrypted byte array 310 elements are placed back into the original packet header, in their corresponding positions.

Table 2 illustrates how the contents of the encrypted byte array 310 are repacked into the original TCP/IP packet header, thereby replacing the old (original) information. The packet header at this point is said to be translated. Once translated, this packet is transmitted across the Internet 36 to the destination enclave 33, targeted to the receiving host 34.

TABLE 2 IP TCP Ver. 1HL TOS Total Length Source Port′ Destination Port′ Identification′ Flags Fragment Offset Sequence Number′ Time to Live Protocol Header Checksum Acknowledgement Number′ Source Network Address′ Src Host Addr′ Offset Reserved (Bits) Window Destination Network Address′ Dest Host Addr′ Checksum Urgent Pointer Options + Padding′ Options + Padding′

The destination ASD peer 35 intercepts the packet, verifies that it came from the sending enclave 30 and that the sending enclave 30 is trusted, and proceeds to restore the packet header back to its original form. Restoration proceeds similarly to translation: first, packet header data: Identification, Source Host portion of the Source Address (i.e., lower 8-bits), Destination Host portion of the Destination Address (i.e., lower 8-bits), Source Port, Destination Port, Sequence Number, Acknowledgement Number, and Padding are extracted and packed into a byte array. Then the byte array is run through the symmetric cryptographic algorithm to decrypt it, using the negotiated key. The restored parameters are copied into the packet header, overwriting the original fields. The result is a restored header now resembling the original packet header created by the sending host 31. The packet is then forwarded to the receiving host 34, completing delivery.

As can be seen with reference to Table 2, in the present invention, the encrypted information is copied into ordinary packet header format giving the appearance to an outside observer of being cleartext representations. This distinguishes the ASD technique from technologies such as IPsec tunnel mode, which actually encrypt the datagram and do not attempt to copy its parameters into the context of a normal packet. The difference is that ASD packets look like real packets; IPsec packets look like encrypted packets enveloped in a point-to-point packet. The ASD technique, however, seamlessly layers with data security technologies such as IPsec and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) because it only affects addressing and sequencing information for translation/restoration, allowing it to be used to enhance existing network security systems.

Furthermore, routers 37, 38, firewalls, switches, hubs, network address translation (NAT) devices (not shown), and the like, can be used in conjunction with the ASD technique. Those skilled in the art also will appreciate that ASD, NAT, switch, hub, firewall devices and the like, may be separately provided or may be engineered into one host (or hardware unit).

Note that there may be a situation where an unchanging N-bit blocksize is being encrypted by an N-bit block cipher algorithm. An example is the bit block used to store the TCP source and Destination Ports: port values remain fixed from packet to packet, for the life of the connection. In this case, the resulting encrypted block would remain constant from packet to packet. However, exclusive ORing (XORing) the N-bit unchanging block with a field that does change per-packet (e.g., sequence parameter) and then encrypting that new block overcomes this. The receiving ASD peer 35 need only decrypt in the usual manner, and then XOR the decrypted N-Bit block with the same changing parameter to return to the same original block of data. For example, TCP Source Port can be XOR'd by the TCP Sequence Number to achieve a more pseudo-random cryptographic effect.

A preferred embodiment of the handshake operation between ASD peers will next be described with reference to the flowchart of FIGS. 5A and 5B. The key establishment handshake operation authenticates ASD peers and negotiates a symmetric cryptographic key used for translating the packets. The flow chart in FIGS. 5A and 5B makes reference to elements from the network configuration illustrated in FIG. 1.

One known technique used for exchanging key information is the Diffie-Hellman technique. Diffie-Hellman is a key agreement algorithm used by two parties to agree on a shared secret. The resulting keying material is used as a symmetric encryption key. When using the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, seed information is represented by prearranged “p” and “g” values (i.e., 1024 bit numbers). Accordingly, in step S500, the “p” and “g” values are initialized for deriving symmetric keys. Preferably, each party involved in the exchange stores these values in the Keying Information parameter of the OOB table, to be described in detail below.

Next, in step S505, an ASD key establishment handshake is triggered by initial traffic between two ASD peers. This can occur, for example, when a sending host 31 sends a packet to a receiving host 34. Note that an ASD key establishment handshake can also be triggered by an expired timeout value during data transmission. Such a non-initial handshake is referred to as a resynchronization. Resynchronization forces a new symmetric key to be generated in order to keep changing the key values. The use of periodic or random resynchronization is preferred since the probability of encryption keys becoming compromised increases with time.

At step S510, the packet is queued at the sending ASD peer 32, that is, the packet being sent from a sending host 31 to receiving host 34 must wait at the ASD peer 32 until the handshake operation completes. Because the kernel has the capability to queue the packets, overflow of packets at the sending ASD peer 32 should not become an issue.

At steps S515A and S515B, it is determined if a handshake is required. To make the determination, in step S515A, an Active Connection Table (ACT), to be described in detail below, is queried for the destination ASD peer's information, including whether an active connection still exists. For example, the network information of other ASD peers may be available but their corresponding symmetric keys might not, or their timeout parameters may have expired. In that event the connection state is inactive for those two peers.

An active connection is considered to exist if the sending and receiving ASD peers have previously negotiated a symmetric key and the lifetime of that key has not expired (timed-out). If it is determined at step S515B that an unexpired active connection exists, then the flow proceeds directly to step S580: the original packet previously queued in the sending ASD peer 32 comes through the queues, is translated and sent. In addition, the follow on packets at both the sending ASD peer 32 and the receiving ASD peer 35 are also sent through their respective queues, translated, and sent.

If the receiving ASD peer 35 is not found in the sending ASD peer's 32 ACT table, or the entry has timed out, the synchronization program proceeds to steps S520A and S520B to determine whether the receiving host's 34 network (i.e., upper 24 bits of address) is in the sending ASD peer's 32 OOB table. To make the determination, in step S520A, the sending ASD peer's OOB table is queried for the sending host's network address. If it is determined in step S520B that the receiving host's network is not in the OOB table, the packet may be dropped or an ASD to non-ASD communication session may be initiated as shown in step S525.

If the receiving host's network is determined to be an ASD peer, at step S530, entries to this effect are added to the sending ASD's 32 ACT table. At this point the handshake operation has not negotiated a symmetric key, therefore the keys are set to default initialization values. Certain ACT table parameters also are initialized at this time. For example, the ASD Pair State is set to a value representing a wait state (“wait for seed acknowledgement”) representing waiting for a seed acknowledgement message from the receiving ASD peer 35. The Timeout Value parameter is set to a value representing how long an attempt to negotiate a key should last (“handshake timeout”). The ASD Pair Symmetric Key parameter is set to Null since this is the value being sought by the handshake operation.

Next, at step S535, the sending ASD 32 generates a seed T_(A)derived from the Diffie-Hellman key exchange formula: T_(A)=(ĝr_(ab)) mod p, where p and g are the seed values initialized in step S500, and r_(ab) is a random number. The sending ASD peer then sends T_(A) to the receiving peer 35. Along with T_(A), the sending ASD peer 32 sends a request for the other seed (T_(B)) required to generate a symmetric cryptographic key K_(AB). Step S535 also saves r_(ab) for generating K_(AB) after receiving T_(B).

At step S540A, the receiving ASD peer 35 authenticates sending ASD peer 32 by checking its OOB table to verify an entry exists for the sending ASD peer 32. If it is determined in step S540B that an entry does not exist then the sending ASD peer 32 is not authenticated and, at step S545, the receiving ASD peer 35 drops the packet. Additionally, the receiving ASD peer may reply to the sending host with falsified source, destination and identification information to hide the fact that an ASD protection device is being used on the network.

If it is determined in step S540B that an OOB entry does exist for the sending ASD peer 32, then the receiving ASD peer 35 accepts the seed T_(A) at step S550, and the receiving ASD peer 35 computes its seed (T_(B)). T_(B) is derived from the Diffie-Hellman key exchange formula: T_(B)=(ĝr_(ba)) mod p, where g and p are the seeds initialized in step S500 and r_(ba) is another random number generated within the receiving ASD peer 35. The receiving ASD peer 35 then uses T_(A) to compute the symmetric key (K_(AB)) using the formula K_(AB)=(T_(A)̂r_(ba)) mod p.

Next, in step S550, the receiving ASD peer 35, sends T_(B), along with an “acknowledge” message, to sending ASD peer 32. At step S555, the following values are stored into the receiving ASD peer's 35 ACT table: the sending ASD peer's 32 Timeout Value, the ASD Pair Symmetric Key K_(AB), and the ASD Pair State value is set to “wait for an acknowledge”. These parameters are stored in the array identified as the sending ASD peer's 32 array. The receiving ASD peer 35 then waits for acknowledge from sending ASD peer 32 before it will send more packets. Next, in step S560, the sending ASD peer 32, computes K_(AB) using the formula K_(AB)=(T_(B)̂r_(ab)) mod p, where r_(ab) is the random number generated in the sending ASD peer, p is the pre-configured random number seed, and T_(B) is the seed generated by the receiving ASD peer 35.

In step S565, the sending ASD peer 32 updates its ACT table with regard to receiving ASD peer 35. Thus, the sending ASD peer's ACT table is updated with ASD Pair State set to “active”, ASD Pair Symmetric Key becomes K_(AB), and Timeout Value becomes the current time (or some reference time) plus a translation timeout.

Next, in step S570, the sending ASD peer 32 sends the receiving ASD peer 35 an acknowledge message. This message causes the receiving ASD peer 35 to modify its ACT table with respect to the sending ASD peer 32, as shown in step 575. The parameters modified are: ASD Pair State to “active”, and the Timeout Value to the current time (or some reference time) plus a translation timeout.

Referring to step S580, at this point, an active connection exists. Therefore the original packet previously queued in the sending ASD peer 32 comes through the queues, is translated and sent. In addition, the follow-on packets at both the sending ASD peer 32 and the receiving ASD peer 35 are also sent through their respective queues, translated, and sent.

As stated above, in the preferred embodiment, a Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm is used to establish a key. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other key exchange algorithms can be used, such as for example the FORTEZZA, RSA Key Exchange, SKIP, Photuris, Oakley, Internet Key Exchange algorithms, and still be within the scope of the invention. Also, other methods of exchanging key information can be used and still be within the scope of the invention. For example, a manual method may be substituted for the technique described above. A manual method would entail having an administrator physically load onto the ASD peers a symmetric key rather than have the key negotiated automatically by the ASD peers' handshake operation.

The handshake operation can use UDP/IP packets to transmit the handshake key exchange information in a manner that thwarts attempts at mapping a network during a handshake operation. FIG. 6 illustrates a UDP/IP header 602. The packet header takes the form of an IP header 600 followed by a UDP header 601.

The receiving ASD peer 35 must know that this packet is for the handshake operation. Therefore, in the IP header, the Type of Service (TOS) parameter is encoded with a value representing a handshake operation (e.g., 101). It will be appreciated that other locations within the header can be used to identify the purpose of the header.

The other fields are set to normal values (e.g., Protocol=“UDP”, checksum, etc.). The information that follows the translated UDP/IP header 602 is the handshake data (i.e., random key numbers T_(A) and T_(B), and acknowledge data). The ACT Table mentioned above is now explained in detail.

TABLE 3 ASD Network ASD Network ASD Network Address_(N) Address_(N+1) Address_(N+2) ASD Pair ASD Pair State_(N+1) ASD Pair State_(N) State_(N+2) ASD Pair ASD Pair Symmetric ASD Pair Symmetric Key_(N) Key_(N+1) Symmetric Key_(N+2) ASD Pair ASD Pair ASD Pair Translation Translation Translation Algorithm Algorithm Algorithm Reference Reference_(N+1) Reference_(N+2) Timeout Value_(N) Timeout Value_(N+1) Timeout Value_(N+2)

An ASD peer can communicate with various other ASD peers. Therefore, each ASD peer maintains an ACT table that includes arrays of information about other ASD peers. One of the items included in the table is the ASD Network address parameter. The ASD network address parameter is the network address of other ASD peers (i.e., the upper three bytes of a Class-C IP address). Table 3 shows exemplary information arrays for three different ASD networks. For purposes of illustration, one array is indicated with subscript N, another with subscript N+1, and a third with subscript N+2. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention each ASD peer's encryption key has been separately negotiated. Thus, even if the ASD_(N) can see the traffic going between ASD_(N+1) and ASD_(N+2), it can not decrypt the information because it does not have the right key.

The ASD Pair State parameter is a parameter used to tell an ASD peer whether the connection between it and the peer for which the parameter is stored is active. The ASD Pair Symmetric Key parameter is the negotiated key for that pair of peers, if one already exists. It is also used to store temporary values while a handshake operation is in progress.

The ASD Pair Translation Algorithm Reference parameter identifies which algorithm, from among the available encryption algorithms discussed above, is being used between that pair to encrypt and decrypt the TCP/IP parameters. As mentioned above, there are various types of algorithms available for doing symmetric translation such as for example RC5™, created by RSA Securities Incorporation, defense encryption standard (DES), Blowfish, Twofish, etc. In addition, asymmetric (public-key) algorithms may be used for translation, including the RSA algorithm or Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms, as an example.

The Timeout Value parameter is the symmetric key lifetime. If a packet has been sent and the timeout value has expired, another handshake must occur to obtain another symmetric encryption key. In turn the symmetric key field would then be updated with the new key. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that periodic rekeying of a cryptographic system provides added protection against key discovery.

Table 4 summarizes a preferred OOB configuration table. The OOB table is used to control behavior of the ASD and is read in by the ASD at startup time; the OOB dictates which network is being protected and provides the list of authorized peer hosts among other things. Since altering the OOB configuration tables can disable existing and future communications, those tables should reside in a secure file or directory. Alternatively, they can exist in rewritable hardware such as, for example, an EPROM.

TABLE 4 Network Protected Network Range Utilization Approved ASD Peer Approved ASD Peer Approved ASD Peer Networks N Networks N + 1 Networks N + 2 ASD Peer Range ASD Peer Range ASD Peer Range Utilization N Utilization N + 1 Utilization N + 2 Translation Scheme N Translation Scheme Translation Scheme N + 1 N + 2 Keying Information N Keying Information Keying Information N + 1 N + 2 Timer Information N Timer Information Timer Information N + 1 N + 2

The Network Protected parameter is the address of the enclave protected by the ASD peer using the table. The Network Range Utilization parameter provides the addresses apportioned for use with the ASD technique. This permits an ASD administrator to decide whether all or some of the available addresses will be used for the translation process. If, for example, out of 256 possible addresses, an administrator decides to use 128 addresses, an adversary using a network sniffer on the Internet will see all the chosen 128 addresses being used fairly evenly—even if, for example, there are only five hosts installed on the network.

The Approved ASD Peer Networks parameter identifies ASD peers and enclaves approved for ASD-to-ASD communication. If a host attempts to send a packet addressed to a network not listed in the table then the packet can be dropped or ASD to non-ASD communications can take place (another embodiment of the present invention, discussed below). The network address space also can be partitioned into a subset of ASD addresses (true IP addresses), addresses reserved for configuration and/or seed exchange (management addresses), and addresses reserved for other purposes.

The ASD Peer Range Utilization parameter identifies how the peer ASD network is partitioned into ASD addresses. For example, in a range of addresses of 0-128, if hosts 0-9 are being used for non-ASD purposes, then an offset can be established in this parameter to change the range of addresses available for the ASD peer to 10-138. This is similar to the network range utilization, but for the remote peer; there is one entry per remote peer.

The Translation Scheme parameter holds the type or types of translation algorithms to be used for translation of the packet data. This parameter can include a preferred algorithm or a list of algorithms available to other peers. Thus, another embodiment of the invention may not only negotiate a key, but also negotiate the algorithm that uses that key. The list of algorithms also can be cycled to vary which one is being used at any given time, and could also be selected in response to intruder activity, favoring a more robust algorithm over a more efficient one in times of active threat.

The Keying Information parameter is used by the local ASD with each ASD peer to securely establish key information during the handshake. As described above, one technique used for securely exchanging key information is the Diffie-Hellman technique. Diffie-Hellman is a key agreement algorithm used by two parties to agree on a shared secret. The resulting keying material is used as a symmetric encryption key. When using the Diffie-Hellman symmetric key exchange the seed information will be prearranged “p” and “g” values (i.e., 10̂24 bit numbers) stored in the Keying Information parameter. Note, that the “p” and “g” values used with Diffie-Hellman symmetric key exchange can be generated offline by a separate stand-alone tool. As stated above, those skilled in the art also will realize that other key agreement algorithms can be used in lieu of the Diffie-Hellman technique.

The Timing Information parameter identifies information needed to control handshake timeout settings and number of retries, and peer-to-peer lifetime information.

In the preferred embodiment, the OOB configuration table can be updated during ASD operation without affecting the operation. Should updates be made to the configuration information during ASD operation, the changes will not take place until the ASD is specifically notified to update to the new settings. In the event that changes are made during ASD down-time, the new configuration can become active when the ASD is brought back up. If dealignment occurs (i.e., where the sending ASD has different values in its configuration file than the receiving ASD does), an ASD administrator can reinitialize the dealigned parameters. The OOB Configuration table also can be updated when ASD addresses change, Management/Configuration addresses change or Fixed/Reserved outside address space changes.

If the fixed outside addresses run out but there exists a need to add another outside device, the effect will be that all peer ASD devices will need to update their configuration information about the local peer or enclave. For example, if the ASD peer utilization range was set to 256 (out of 256 possible addresses) and a new outside address is needed, the range of ASD-occupied addresses can be reduced to 128 free reserved addresses. This would affect the previously configured OOB tables and require changes to both the local ASD peer and authorized remote peers that may wish to communicate with the local peer. However, a new range of addresses could be negotiated during the handshake, thereby taking into account new outside devices and minimizing out of band reconfiguration.

As described above, an ASD administrator pre-configures the ASD peers with security information to support a secure exchange of packets. This pre-configuring operation allows enclaves to maintain predetermined security associations with each other by prearranging which enclaves are ASD protected enclaves, which encryption algorithms are being used for each particular ASD enclave, timeout information, and information necessary for generating an encryption key. OOB management software allows systems administrators to configure OOB configuration tables prior to communicating with other ASD peers (and their trusted hosts) or external hosts (untrusted hosts).

In the preferred embodiment, the ASD technique of the present invention is to be implemented as software modifications to the central module of an operating system (kernel) on a bastion host. At a minimum, such software includes code for the key establishment handshake as well as code for the header information translation.

In another embodiment, the ASD technique of the present invention is to be implemented as a software or hardware modification to a network card. A network card includes a transceiver, memory and a microprocessor programmed to communicate packets to and from a network. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the network card, programmed with the ASD technique, can be coupled to a bastion host and provide the same advantages described above as having the ASD technique programmed into the OS kernel.

Various dealignment situations can be accounted for automatically. For example, if the sending ASD peer 32 sends a packet to the receiving ASD peer 35 with the ASD Pair State set to “active” and with a previously negotiated key “K_(AB)” but the receiving ASD peer 35 does not recognize the sending ASD peer 32, then the receiving ASD peer 35 should first look in its OOB configuration file to see if it recognizes the sending ASD peer 32. If it does then the receiving ASD peer 35 can initiate a handshake with the sending ASD peer 32 causing the sending ASD peer 32 to create new r_(ab), T_(A) and K_(AB) values. The receiving ASD peer 35 will have to drop the packet and sending host 31 should retransmit the packet. Similarly, if the sending ASD peer 32 tries to communicate with the receiving ASD peer 35 after the receiving ASD peer 35 reboots, the receiving ASD peer 35 may not have an entry for the sending ASD peer 32. Thus, the sending ASD peer 32 will have to replace the receiving ASD peer's 35 entry in its ACT during resynchronization.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention relates to ASD to non-ASD communications. Referring to FIG. 2, step S109 and FIGS. 5A and 5B, step S525, when a packet is sent by an ASD peer whose ACT and OOB tables do not include the receiving ASD peer's network address, the packet is either dropped or an ASD to non-ASD communications session results. If an ASD to non-ASD communications session is to ensue, the sending ASD peer must take into account that the receiving machine cannot handle key exchanges, translate packets or restore encrypted packets. The ASD to non-ASD communications technique hides the sending ASD host's identity, thereby preventing an adversary from mapping the sending enclave's topology but leaves intact the packet header's destination information.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the steps involved in sending a packet to a non-ASD protected enclave. Initially at step S700, the sending ASD peer receives a packet for transmission out of the enclave. The sending ASD peer, in step S701, queues the packet. Next, in step S702A, a handshake operation determines whether an ASD peer protects the destination machine by looking for the destination machine's network address in its ACT and OOB tables. If the destination machine's address is found and it is determined in step S702B that an ASD peer is protecting the destination machine, then an ASD to ASD communications can take place, as shown in step S703, as described above in the ASD technique method of the present invention.

If, in step S702B, the destination network was not found, then an ASD to non-ASD communications can take place. In step S704, entry is created in the sending ASD's ACT. This entry includes (for a TCP/IP packet) the IP identification (IDENT), Source Address (SADDR), Destination Address (DADDR), and the TCP Source Port (SPORT), Destination Port (DPORT), sequence (SEQ), and acknowledge (ACK) parameters. This entry is referred to as an encryption block. Thus, an ACT table can include the entries mentioned in the ASD technique of the present invention and various encryption blocks for the ASD to non-ASD communications technique of the present invention.

Those packet header parameters that vary for each packet are called “changeables”. The changeables include the TCP sequence and acknowledge parameters, and the IP identification parameters. Since the destination machine is expecting consistent address information and the ASD-translated address information is in part determined by the changeables, these values must be coerced into remaining the same. Also, since the destination machine does not restore ASD translated packets, the Destination Address and Destination Port also remain the same.

In step S705, the changeables, the source and destination addresses and the source and Destination Port numbers are copied and temporarily stored. The changeables are, in step S706, set to zero to be able to decrypt a reply packet using the same encryption data block. The changeables are set to a fixed value of zero prior to the encryption step-doing so assures consistent encrypted Source Address information from one packet to the next, which the receiving (non-ASD) host uses to reply to the packets.

Table 5 shows the encryption block. It further shows the changeables set to zero.

TABLE 5 IP TCP IDENT = SADDR DADDR SPORT DPORT SEQ = ACK = 0 0 0

Next, in step S707, the block is encrypted. Since a handshake operation is not required between the ASD device and the destination enclave, a key exchange for translating data need not be negotiated. Instead, a random number is generated within the ASD device and an encryption algorithm uses the random number as the key to encrypt the data. The same random number generators and translation algorithms used in ASD-to-ASD communications can be used to encrypt the header parameters in ASD to non-ASD communications.

After the encryption block is encrypted, in step 708, the original changeables, Destination Address and Destination Port are restored into the original packet header along with the encrypted Source Address (SADDR) and Source Port (SPORT). Thus, only the Source Address and Source Port remain encrypted. As mentioned above, this is required to achieve delivery of the packet to the destination machine and provide a consistent address for the receiving non-ASD host. Finally, as shown in Step 709, the packet is transmitted. The encryption block is saved in the ACT table for decrypting a reply packet, described next in more detail.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of steps involved in receiving a reply packet from a non-ASD machine. First, in step S801, the reply packet is received. On a TCP/IP reply packet, the source and destination information have been swapped (i.e., the destination refers to the original sending device). This reply packet includes encrypted destination information since the source information was previously encrypted when a packet was sent to the non-ASD device. Accordingly, in step S802, the ASD device looks up the encrypted Destination Address and port, and the unencrypted Source Address and Port in its ACT table (i.e., its set of encryption blocks). If, in step S803, a match is not found, step S804 drops the packet. Alternatively, the invention can return a realistic but obfuscated reply instead of dropping the packet.

If the source and destination information is found, then in step S805, a decryption block is created. The decryption block includes the identification, Source Address, Destination Address, Source Port, Destination Port, sequence, and acknowledge parameters for a TCP/IP header. These parameters must be packed into the decryption block such that, after a decryption operation, the original Source Address and Port are recovered. From the ACT table (i.e., the encrypted parameters stored in the encryption block described above), the identification, Destination Address, Destination Port, sequence and acknowledge parameters are looked up out of the ACT, and packed into their respective locations in the decryption block. These previously encrypted parameters are repacked into the block so that the values returned after decryption are the true Destination Address and Destination Port (which are at this point, stored in their respective Source Address and Port locations), and that the block will decrypt correctly.

Decrypting the reply, in other words, involves recovering the bits of the changeables which were stored prior to sending out the initial packet; these bits are used to restore the encrypted block to its original form and guarantee successful decryption of the reply. The changeables are stored since they would otherwise be lost when the original (unencrypted) values are copied in prior to transmission.

Next, in step S806, the decryption block is decrypted. Step S806 returns the true Destination Address and Destination Port (currently in their corresponding source parameter locations), but the rest of the parameters are not correct. Therefore, in step S807, the Source Address and Source Port are swapped with their corresponding Destination Address and Destination Port locations within the encryption block. Also, the original reply packet header Source Address, Source Port and changeables values are repacked into the decryption block. The result is a decryption block with true source and destination information, and with the correct changeables. The decryption block parameters are then placed back into the original TCP/IP header. Finally, in step S808, the packet is transmitted to the destination host.

A sliding scale implementation of the ASD technique of the present invention will now be described. In the per-packet ASD technique described above, the translated header values including the apparent host source and destination addresses vary on a packet by packet basis. On the other hand, sliding scale ASD translates header information in such a way as to maintain consistent header values among groups of contiguous packets. This gives the impression of a more normal flow of packet traffic to outside observers.

The sliding scale ASD technique, like the per-packet ASD technique, preferably uses block cipher encryption algorithms. In commonly used block cipher cryptographic techniques, such as for example RC5™, identical blocks of plaintext bits will always encode to identical respective encrypted blocks; conversely, if even one bit of the plaintext block changes, a completely different encrypted block will be produced as a result of the statistical properties of the cryptographic algorithm. For packet headers issued by a particular host, the values in the IP id, TCP sequence and TCP acknowledgement fields will typically vary from packet to packet. For example, many UNIX-based TCP/IP implementations will sequentially increment the IP id field of each packet that it issues. As a result of this phenomenon, the plaintext block of header information that includes the IP id, TCP sequence, and TCP acknowledgement fields created in the per-packet ASD technique discussed above will always exhibit at least one bit's difference between any two consecutive packets issued by a communications device. The result of encrypting successive plaintext blocks using the ASD technique detailed above will result in statistically diverse differences between translated header values from one packet to the next. For example, the apparent source host addresses on any two consecutive ASD-translated packets emanating from a given enclave may have a numerical difference of up to 75.

The result of the per-packet ASD technique is that outgoing packet traffic from the enclave appears to the observer, on a packet by packet basis, to have originated from any one of the possible hosts in the source enclave in a random manner. That is, it looks to the observer like every enclave host is issuing completely random, disconnected streams of packets. While this level of obfuscation may be what is desired to thwart adversaries, it may have the effect of dissuading an adversary from ever attempting to “ping” the system, deducing that some nonsensical addressing scheme is in use. Additionally, the high level of obfuscation may heighten the adversary's awareness that a security system is in place, revealing the critical nature of protected assets and attracting unwanted attention. There may be other situations in which it is desirable to entice an adversary to ping the system, while still maintaining some level of security by disguising true host addresses.

In accordance with the present invention, the preferred embodiment of the sliding scale implementation of ASD performs a block cipher encryption-based translation on less rapidly varying portions of the header information, to make packet traffic appear more like a typical message stream, rather than like a totally random series of packets. In particular, in the sliding scale ASD implementation, the translation performed by the ASD peer produces packets in which arbitrary host source addresses change every predetermined number of packets, rather than every packet, as in per-packet ASD. This is accomplished by masking off, before encryption, certain rapidly-changing bits in the header, allowing the to-be-translated information in several consecutive packets to translate to the same, albeit arbitrary, value, and in particular, to the same source and destination address, just as in normal traffic.

The basic hardware for the sliding scale ASD is the same as that described above for per packet ASD except that the ASD peer preferably will be programmed to selectively perform the additional processing described below, when sliding scale ASD is desired in lieu of per-packet ASD. The handshake procedure is also the same as for per packet ASD since the basic encryption process will remain the same, except for the reduced packet to packet variation in the values subject to encryption.

An example of the sliding scale technique will be discussed with reference to a translation performed on a 32 bit block that includes the IP id field, a 16-bit header field that typically increases sequentially packet to packet, together with the lower 8 bits of each of the IP source and destination fields. Because the variation in the IP id field is sequential and typically monotonic, the lower order bits change more frequently than the upper order bits, and the upper order bits only change after the lower bits have counted wrapped around to zero in a modulo style. For example, assuming that the IP id number increments by one for each new packet, and that the lower 2 bits of the IP id field are masked, i.e., taken to be always zero in the encryption, then the upper (unmasked) 14 bits would change only every four packets.

Since blocks with the same bit sequence will always encrypt to the same encrypted result, encrypting the 32 bit block consisting of the unchanged source and destination bits concatenated with the masked IP id of the transmitted packets would result, in the above example, of a different encrypted result every four packets, that is, when a plaintext upper bit of the IP id field flipped.

Referring for FIGS. 3 and 4 discussed above, it can be seen in those figures that buffer 210, containing the plaintext bits subject to encryption, is created by extracting the lower 8 bits of both the IP src and dest fields, the 16 bit IP id field, and the TCP fields src port, dest port, sequence number and ACK number. In the preferred embodiment, the RC5™ algorithm block size is configured for 32 bits, and so the buffer 210 (containing 128 bits) is encrypted in four steps.

The technique may be used to mask out rapidly changing bits of one or more of the 32 bit blocks subject to encryption. However, the sliding scale technique of the present invention will be described in detail as applied to the 32 bit portion of buffer 210 that in the ASD translation technique contains the lower 8 bits of each of the source and destination addresses, as well as all 16 bits of the IP identification field.

An example of the process is described with respect to the diagram of FIG. 9 and the flowcharts of FIGS. 10 and 11. For the purpose of explaining the sliding scale translation process of the present invention, FIG. 9 will follow the process as applied to the 16 bit IP id field of the 32 bit block to be encrypted. Since the IP source and destination fields generally remain unchanged for any sequence of packets exchanged between a given pair of hosts, for simplicity of explanation, they are treated as “don't cares” in the figure, although their bit values are in fact utilized in the encryption. The IP id field is a field particularly amenable to application of the sliding scale technique because it changes sequentially on a packet to packet basis.

Rather than simply encrypting this plaintext 32 bit block, as in per-packet ASD, additional steps under sliding scale ASD are performed on the bits in the buffer before it is encrypted and placed back in the packet header for transmission. Referring to FIGS. 9 and 10 and step S20, a mask (b) is applied to, that is, logically ANDed with, the plaintext bits (a) of the IP id field masking out the lower bits to all zeroes. The original plaintext lower bits are stored in a temporary memory location for later use. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the lower 8 bits are masked out. However, the invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment, and the number of lower bits to be masked can be a different number. After application of the mask (b) to plaintext block (a), the result is shown at (c).

Next, at step S21, the 32 bit block under discussion is subjected to encryption. As in per-packet ASD, the remainder of the 128 bit buffer 210 also will be subjected to encryption in 32 bit blocks in this particular configuration of RC5™. A hypothetical encryption result is shown at (d), with the source and destination fields not shown in detail. At step S22, the lower 8 bits of the encrypted block are removed and stored, preferably in an unused header location, such as the IP options field, or in data, and at step S23, those bits are replaced with the original lower 8 plaintext bits, which were stored in temporary memory at step S20, to form the concatenated block shown in (e). The bits of the concatenated block shown in (e) are placed back into the packet header in the appropriate locations for transmission per step S24. At the receiving end, the stored encrypted bits are restored to their original location in the block prior to decryption, to assure the original decrypted result.

Packets translated in accordance with the method described in the foregoing paragraphs will exhibit monotonically increasing values for a certain period, up until the plaintext values of the upper bits flip, at which time a new encrypted number will result, causing a new apparent host source and destination address to appear in the packet headers. The translated packets are transmitted over the Internet and are received by a receiving peer for the enclave on which the destination host resides.

In ASD to ASD communication, at the receiving peer, received packets are detranslated to reconstruct the original packet headers for proper routing within the receiving enclave. The detranslation performed at the receiving peer will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 11. In step S30, the fields from the header that were subjected to translation are placed in a buffer to undergo decryption using the negotiated key. Next, at step S31, the lower bits of the received IP id field, which it will be recalled are the original plaintext bits, are extracted from the block and stored in temporary memory for later use. At step S32 the lower bits of the encrypted block are retrieved from their storage location in the packet header or data areas and placed into the buffer in place of the plaintext. This step is necessary to exactly reconstruct the encrypted block, ensuring that the decryption will result in the correct masked plaintext value. At step S33, decryption is performed using the negotiated key. As has been emphasized, this decryption will return the masked plaintext block, not the original plaintext. To recreate the original plaintext block, the stored plaintext lower 8 bits are recalled from memory and substituted for the lower 8 bit mask values. Once the detranslation has been performed, the detranslated packet header is reconstructed by loading the detranslated header information back into the appropriate header fields. Thereafter, the detranslated packet is sent for internal routing in the local area network (enclave) to the destination host.

The sliding scale ASD technique of the present invention has been illustrated in relation to a particular 32 bit block out of the 128 bit value to be translated. While the 32 bit block that contains the host source and destination addresses shown in the example is an excellent candidate for application of the sliding scale technique, other bit blocks in buffer 210 that contain values which are intended to be translated and that contain bits that vary from packet to packet may be subject to the masking described above. For example, the TCP sequence and acknowledgement fields, which are encrypted in the ASD technique, increment by the length of the packet that came before the current packet. If the lower bits of the block containing these fields are masked, the encrypted block will change less rapidly. However, it should be noted that the variation will not be as predictable as the packet-to-packet variation exhibited by the IP id field, since sequence and acknowledgement numbers vary per the number of bytes exchanged in previous and subsequent packets.

The sliding scale ASD technique can be applied to various ones of the 32 bit blocks as discussed above, either individually or in combination. For example, if both the block including the IP id field and the block including the TCP ack and seq fields are encrypted using the sliding scale ASD technique, masking will be performed on each block to which the sliding scale is to be applied and that block will change whenever the non-masked bits are flipped in either block, or, of course when the timeout occurs with regard to the agreed upon encryption key.

The sliding scale technique of the present invention also can be used in the ASD to non-ASD communication technique discussed above with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. In the sliding scale variation, the sending peer will ensure that the destination bits are unchanged in translation, for example by replacing the encrypted bits of the source field with the plain text destination value.

As discussed above, the handshake protocol of the sliding scale ASD technique is essentially the same as that used in per-packet ASD, since it is still necessary to negotiate an encryption key. However, in the preferred embodiment of the sliding scale technique, it will also be necessary to negotiate where the encrypted lower order bits are stored for transmission, as well as which blocks are to be translated by way of the sliding scale technique.

It should be noted that while the invention has been described above in the context of TCP/IP version 4 suite of protocols, the invention is not limited as such. The same concept could be used for other protocols such as, for example, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Token Ring, Frame Relay, IPv6, cellular digital packet data (CDPD), internet control message protocol (ICMP), internet group management protocol (IGMP) and in general, other entity address-based protocols for wireline or wireless communications. Each of these protocols contains header parameters, relating to a machine's location in the network that could be translated, thereby providing obfuscation of the network topology.

It should also be noted that while the invention has been described above in the context being implemented as a software modification to a bastion host, the invention is not limited as such. The present invention can also be implemented as software or hardware modifications to a computer, router, firewall, network address translator (NAT), Bridge, Switch, Gateway, virtual private network (VPN) device, transceiver, mobile communications device, satellite and the like. Accordingly, the teaching of this invention can be applied to any type of network communications device or system using addressing techniques to route to a network device.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. 

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new and secured by Letters Patent is:
 1. An apparatus for processing packets to be transferred from a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN), the apparatus comprising: intercepting means for intercepting packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN; extracting means for extracting bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation; masking means for masking off from the one or more blocks those bits that vary rapidly from packet to packet; translating means for applying a predetermined encryption algorithm to the one or more blocks after masking off by the masking means; and reinserting means for reinserting bits from the translated block back into the packet header.
 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of the predetermined fields is the IP id field of a TCP/IP header and the masking means masks off lower order bits of the IP id field.
 3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined fields include the TCP ack and seq fields of a TCP/IP header and the masking means masks off predetermined bits of the TCP ack and seq fields.
 4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined encryption algorithm is a block cipher encryption algorithm.
 5. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising plaintext substitution means for substituting the lower order plaintext bits that had been masked off by the masking means for the corresponding encrypted bits, and storing the substituted encrypted bits, before execution of the reinserting means.
 6. A method for processing packets to be transferred from a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN), the method comprising: intercepting packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN; extracting bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation; masking off from the one or more blocks those bits that vary rapidly from packet to packet; applying a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking off at the masking step; and reinserting bits from the translated block back into the packet header.
 7. A method according to claim 6, wherein one of the predetermined fields is the IP id field of a TCP/IP header and the masking off step masks lower order bits of the IP id field.
 8. A method according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined fields include the TCP ack and seq fields of a TCP/IP header and the masking off step masks predetermined bits of the TCP ack and seq fields.
 9. A method according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined encryption algorithm is a block cipher encryption algorithm.
 10. A method according to claim 6, further comprising a plaintext substitution step of substituting the lower order plaintext bits that had been masked off by the masking means for the corresponding encrypted bits, and storing the substituted encrypted bits, before execution of the reinserting step.
 11. A bastion host for a local area network (LAN) adapted for processing packets to be transferred from the LAN to a wide area network (WAN), the bastion host being operable to: intercept packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN; extract bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation; mask off from the one or more blocks those bits that vary rapidly from packet to packet; apply a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking off; and reinsert bits from the translated block back into the packet header.
 12. A bastion host according to claim 11, wherein one of the predetermined fields is the IP id field of a TCP/IP header and the mask step masks off lower order bits of the IP id field.
 13. A bastion host according to claim 11, wherein the predetermined fields includes the TCP ack and seq fields of a TCP/IP header and the masking masks off predetermined bits of the TCP ack and seq fields.
 14. A bastion host according to claim 11, wherein the predetermined encryption algorithm is a block cipher encryption algorithm.
 15. A bastion host according to claim 11, the bastion host being further operable to substitute the lower order plaintext bits that had been masked off by the masking for the corresponding encrypted bits, and store the substituted encrypted bits, before execution of the reinsert step.
 16. A system for securely transmitting, on a wide area network (WAN), packets between at least a first enclave local area network (LAN) and a second enclave LAN, the system comprising: (a) a source host in the first enclave LAN, the source host sending packets destined for transmission over the WAN to a receiving host on the second enclave LAN; (b) a source bastion host associated with the first enclave LAN, the source bastion host being operable to: intercept packets originating from the source host and destined for the receiving host; extract bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation; mask off from the one or more blocks those bits that vary rapidly from packet to packet; apply a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking off; and reinsert bits from the translated block back into the packet header, and transmit the packet on the WAN; (c) a receiving bastion host associated with the second enclave LAN, the receiving bastion host being operable to: receive the packets including the translated blocks; apply a decryption algorithm, associated with the predetermined encryption algorithm, to the translated blocks; and pass the decrypted packets on to the receiving host; and (d) the receiving host.
 17. A computer-readable medium storing code which, when executed by a processor-controlled apparatus, causes the apparatus to perform a method for processing packets to be transferred from a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN), the method comprising: intercepting packets originating from a host on the LAN, the packets being destined for transmission over the WAN; extracting bits from predetermined fields from each packet header to form one or more blocks for translation; masking off from the one or more blocks those bits that vary rapidly from packet to packet; applying a predetermined encryption algorithm to translate the one or more blocks after masking off at the masking step; and reinserting bits from the translated block back into the packet header.
 18. A computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein one of the predetermined fields is the IP id field of a TCP/IP header and the masking step masks off lower order bits of the IP id field.
 19. A computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the predetermined fields include the TCP ack and seq fields of a TCP/IP header and the masking step masks off predetermined bits of the TCP ack and seq fields.
 20. A computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the predetermined encryption algorithm is a block cipher encryption algorithm.
 21. A computer-readable medium according to claim 17, further comprising a plaintext substitution step of substituting the lower order plaintext bits that had been masked off by the masking means for the corresponding encrypted bits, and storing the substituted encrypted bits, before execution of the reinserting step. 